Now Reading: Atiku Pledges to Prioritize Yoruba Interests if Elected President
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Atiku Pledges to Prioritize Yoruba Interests if Elected President
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has promised that the Yoruba will “occupy a topmost place” in his administration’s priorities if he wins the 2027 presidential election.
Addressing concerns about ethnic domination, the PDP chieftain dismissed suggestions that a presidency under his watch might tilt power towards the Hausa/Fulani, insisting that his personal ties to the South-West made such fears baseless.
“The entire Yoruba stock is my larger extended family and in-laws,” Atiku said in a statement issued on Thursday by his media consultant, Kola Johnson.
“I count myself extremely lucky to have had a wife from amongst this noble species of the human race, which by this token implies that the bond uniting me together with the Yoruba is aptly like the genetic bond of a family.”
He pointed to his first marriage to Titi, an Ijesha-born Yoruba woman whom he wed in the 1970s, as proof of his deep connection to the region.
“In case you don’t know or have forgotten, I was married to my first wife, Titi, a Yoruba woman, in the 70s, and we have four Yoruba children together. She is now over 75 years old, and we are still together,” Atiku said, adding that his children fondly call him Baba Rere (“good father”).
The former vice president described Titi as his “Jewel of Inestimable Value” and stressed that Yoruba people had always been among his closest friends and political allies.
“At every stage of my life, whether in business or politics, I have flowed easily and effortlessly with people of diverse tribes, ethnicity, and religion,” he noted.
“Therefore, the fear that my ascension to the presidency might lead to Hausa/Fulani domination over the Yorubas or other ethnic groups is absolutely unfounded.”
Atiku, who was runner-up in the 2023 general election, is once again seeking to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027. He pledged that if elected, the South-West would play a central role in shaping his policies and governance.
